Training tip - Multi-run days

Add a couple of multi-run days to your training schedule a few weeks before the race. Count backward four weeks prior to the race and add one multi-run day four weeks out, one three weeks out, and two two weeks out. The last week before the race should be a mini-taper, resting up for the race.

In order to keep yourself from getting injured, you want to keep these runs short. Perhaps 3 to 4 miles each. Run them at your race pace, or a little faster, and make sure that you have at least 8 hours recovery between them. Put these in the middle of the week, say on Wednesday, out of the way of your more critical long runs on the weekends.   (credit: coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com)

A Madison-Chicago (MC200) runner wrote in 2009: “If you now train 3 times a week, 5-7 miles, with some hills, you are close to ready. The tough part is self-control. You need to pace over a 48-hour period anticipating little or no sleep. The fight is three rounds, and between rounds you have to rest when you can. Most common runner mistake I've seen is nervous over-drinking and over-eating of 'race fuel' type stuff.” Another runner added: “And don’t forget the adrenaline factor – you’ll be amazed at what your body can do with very little sleep.“

Rank Stranger trivia: The only runner to run the same leg 6 times Mark (1, 13, 25).  Others who have run the same leg more than 3 times:  Jeff 4 (leg 6, 18, 30) and Eric 4 (31) 3 (19, 24).